Most biologists will spend their whole lifetime and never see a valley elderberry longhorn beetle. This makes Michelle Boercker, a biologist with River Partners, something of a superstar in the bug world for spying five of the beetles this spring.

Boercker had conducted field surveys of elderberry bushes many times, as part of ongoing monitoring of the plants in restoration areas.

On May 18 she was monitoring transplanted elderberry clusters at the Feather River setback levee mitigation area, when she saw a male elderberry beetle.

“I felt like I had won the lottery,” Boercker said.

Her digital camera was a few steps away in her vehicle, so she quickly took a couple of shots with her cell phone. After she sprinted back with the camera, the male beetle was still there, and she watched and took photos for 20-30 minutes, then shared the news with her colleagues at River Partners in Chico.

This was huge news to anyone who knows about the valley elderberry longhorn beetle.

First, they’re a threatened species. Also, the life cycle of the beetle is such that they live inside the elderberry plant for one to two years as larvae, feeding on the wood pulp of the shrubs.

When they do emerge, it is only for a few weeks when the beetles mate, feed on the plant and lay eggs for the next cycle.

Most biologists spend their entire careers only seeing the beetles as specimens in labs.

Most of the time, the only evidence biologists have of the beetle in elderberries is the presence of “exit holes.”

Two days after the first discovery, Boercker saw a female valley elderberry longhorn beetle at the mitigation area, on another elderberry transplant. Boercker watched it for about 30 minutes and took more photos.

Then June 2, at the Star Bend restoration area in the Marysville area, she saw another female beetle, this one traveling on the ground toward a transplanted elderberry.

About 10 minutes later that morning, she saw another male. While watching the male, Boercker spotted yet another female with deformed or damaged wings.

Boercker’s field report, including photographs, can be viewed at: http://riverpartners.org/news-and-events.

The insects mostly rested, moved a little, and nibbled on some leaves, but seeing them is big news to people who pay attention to the status of the beetles’ recovery.

Elderberry plants, which can grow as large as small trees but are referred to as shrubs, grow along waterways throughout the valley.

The beetle is known to only live in the elderberry plant. Because of the bug’s federally threatened status, projects where elderberry plants are disturbed require elderberry planting elsewhere — places such as the mitigation projects for which River Partners is hired.

Since 1998, River Partners has planted 1,748 acres of elderberry plants in the Sacramento Valley, for a total of 33,138 plants. In the San Joaquin Valley, more than 50,000 have been planted on 1,649 acres.

Julie Pokrandt, River Partners development director, said the link to Boercker’s beetle sighting field notes and photos has received the most hits ever of River Partners’ web links.

The area where Boercker photographed elderberry beetles is part of a project required for construction work on the Feather River, and more than 120 elderberry shrubs were transplanted.

Part of the current strategy by River Partners is to plant elderberry stems in clusters. This provides a larger clump of foliage and stems, which is where the recent elderberry beetles were found.

“We worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; they were very cooperative,” said River Partners President John Carlon. “We put them in clusters and that’s where we are seeing the beetles.”

He added, “It’s a big deal for Fish and Wildlife. You don’t get to see a direct payback” very often.

“It might take patience for endangered species recovery, but the actions are working. They take time,” he said.

The hope is that some day the beetle can be delisted on private land, he said.

The monitoring window for the beetle runs through the end of June.

River Partners will be working with Don Miller, of Chico State University’s biological sciences department, to determine why the one female elderberry beetle appeared to have a wing deformity.

Elderberry bushes also provide habitat for other species. Birds love the berries and the plant produces white flowers that attract pollinators.

Staff writer Heather Hacking can be reached at 896-7758 or hhacking@chicoer.com.